Courting
by hatepotion
Summary: Sydney and Adrian end up in Court for a week.
1. First Meetings

A/N: Okay, I've never done this before, I've never posted anything, and I'm really scared. I hope you like it?

Clara

Disclaimer: Unfortunately Christian Ozera does not belong to me and neither do the other characters.

**Chapter 1**

**First meetings**

Even though I knew I wasn't here because I'd done anything wrong, Court still made me feel uneasy. Three months ago I would have thought it was because of the fact that there was a local population of around five hundred vampires. Now I knew better.

The Queen had summoned us, or at least that was what Stanton had said, to give her a report on the current situation. Why it couldn't be done on the phone, I did not understand, and it wasn't my place to ask anyway.

The informative party consisted in Adrian and me, since Jill couldn't simply take a stroll through court, and Eddie, Angeline, and Neil had to stay to protect her. Zoe had been left behind too, on the pretext of having to "take care of the Alchemist affairs" while I was gone. I can't really say I was thrilled she was staying at Amberwood. Of course, I was happy that I got to spend more time with her, even if it meant that I had to put on a cold attitude every time I talked to Eddie or Jill, and even if it meant spending less time with some_ other_ people.

Since last time I was here I had been in a sort of house arrest, I hadn't really visited the guest wing. The room I had been given was simple and had practically no ornamentation. A bed, a desk, a flat screen TV. The room screamed business hotel.

There was a knock on the door, I thought I knew who it would be. I was sorely disappointed. A guardian was standing there, the red sign of the Royal Guard pinned to his chest.

"The Queen will see you now." He said, and gestured for me to follow him.

Well, that was pretty fast. Not an hour since we had arrived and we were already meeting her. Our flight was booked for the following Monday. Maybe we'd have to reschedule.

Deep down I didn't want to go back. Even though I loved being with my substitute family, getting away for a while seemed like a wonderful prospect. Especially since I could be with Adrian all the time I wanted without being regarded with an 'It's awful how much time you have to spend with that vampire'. It was then when I realized that Adrian was not coming with us. I wanted to ask the guardian about that, but I didn't really dare, so I just hoped he was being escorted by some other person, or that he'd be there already.

We reached a wooden, very ornate door. I didn't know exactly what I expected, but what was behind it was definitely not it. It was a big room that looked like an office that had been corrupted. In a sort of improvised sitting area, there were three people laughing, one of whom I was very acquainted with.

I came in and the guardian closed the door behind me. The noise made them aware of my presence.

"Sage!" said Adrian, dropping what looked like cards, "come join us."

"They're smashing me," Said a black-haired guy that I knew was Christian Ozera. "It'll be good to have another non-spirit person, so I won't be the only humiliated one"

"Oh, shut up. We're giving you some advantage." Vasilisa said. Seeing the Queen in jeans and a tank top was oddly unsettling.

I sat down next to Adrian on the couch. He looked at me and smiled.

I was really confused. "I thought… I thought we were going to discuss Jill?" I said.

The three of them stared at me. Christian actually looked like he wanted to laugh. The queen seemed to have some mercy.

"There's nothing about Jill that couldn't be talked through on the phone, or with one of your superiors. Actually, I got a call from Adrian last week saying that you needed a holiday, so I pulled some strings and here you are. Now, let's start a new game. Sydney, do you know how to play poker?"

I was dumbstruck. I didn't answer immediately. I looked at Adrian. He seemed to relish in my befuddlement.

"Uh… yes, I can play Texas Hold'Em" I finally managed to reply.

There was a groan from Vasilisa and Adrian. Christian seemed simply delighted.

"Good, less cards they can guess." He said as he took the dock of cards and started shuffling them.

"Shouldn't we have something to bet with?" I said, while I received the two cards I was entitled to. I still wasn't comfortable with the situation, but I wasn't going to show it.

"Not really," Adrian said, looking at his cards with a perfect poker face, "because of the lack of chips, or anything that could replace them – beans could work, you don't have beans on you, do you? – we have a point system. We award or dock points just like in Harry Potter's school. The good thing about this system is that no one is really disqualified –our friend here, Christian, has minus twenty three points—but you can't really go all in."

"O… kay" I said. We started playing. Even though they could guess fewer cards, they still beat us by far. I ended up with minus fourty two points and Christian with minus seventy three.

"Well, that was embarrassing." He said.

"Not so much. The other round was_ far_ more shameful." Vasilisa tucked a strand of blonde hair behind her ear. She sighed. "So, Sydney, how are things going in Palm Springs?"

Being addressed by her still made me feel odd. "Fine, I guess. Jill's great, and so is Eddie. I doubt that you've met Angeline, but she's doing quite well too, I thought she wouldn't be able to adapt. She does have some academic problems and some… uh, other troubles"

"You mean the cheating on Eddie business." She smiled knowingly. I glared at Adrian. He just smirked in his usual annoying way. I sighed.

"I see you've been informed. Yes, that. Also, there's the fact that the guy she cheated with, Trey, is part of the Warriors of Light – I think a report was issued on that—and it's kind of immoral for him to date her. Well, not that it's not immoral for a dhampir to date a human," _You're on a slippery slope, Sydney._ "But he knows about her, and he wants to keep his distance. Maybe that would be good for Eddie."

"Yes, although we all know that Angeline's not really who Eddie's after." Christian piped in.

I stared at Adrian in awe. "Is there_ anything _you haven't told them?"

His mocking look disappeared. "You know more than anyone that I wouldn't tell everything."

In that moment I really wanted to kiss him.

Vasilisa was staring at us like she was trying to decipher a very complicated puzzle. She looked intently at Adrian, then at me, then back at Adrian. After a few seconds she seemed to come back from her trance. The three of us were staring at her.

"Um, sorry, I just spaced out for a second, there. Sydney, I heard your car exploded?"

"Yes. Tragic. Poor Latte." I really needed a new car.

"How did that happen?" Vasilisa asked, at the same time Christian said "Latte?"

"Vandalism, the police said." I hoped my nerves weren't betraying me.

"Latte is her car's name. Sage likes cars more than people and thinks they ought to have a name." Adrian explained.

"I don't like cars more than people. I just like to name them. Why can a boat have a name, but not a car? It doesn't make sense."

"Because boats have to be recognized by their names. Cars have these things called plates that makes naming them unnecessary."

"If you didn't like the fact that I name cars, then why did you let me name yours?"

Adrian seemed offended. " I never said I didn't like it. I was just explaining why it's not a normal process."

"She named your car?" The queen interrupted the bickering.

"Yes. The Ivaskinator."

Christian and Vasilisa both sat waiting for a punchline. When one didn't come, they burst out laughing.

"Oh…. My…God, best car name _ever_." Vasilisa said, still laughing.

"Thank you, your majesty."

"Oh, god, please no. Just Lissa." She smiled. She must get that all the time.

I gre bold and asked: "Has there been any progress with the family law you wanted to change?" I knew that it was her day off and that she probably didn't want to think about royal matters, but this concerned Jill, and I was curious.

She didn't seem to mind the question, though. "Well, we're doing our best. Even though there are many families that like that I've ended up in the throne, some families don't really agree with me. My changing the law would give me personal benefit. I am trying to pass this law to protect my sister," the way she said 'sister' was forced, like it took a lot of effort to say it. "so many people in the council will probably vote against it. I'm doing my best, though. Of that I can assure you."

There was a silence, which she broke.

"Actually, Adrian, I've been practicing my dream-walking, I'm pretty good at it." There was a suggestive tone in her voice.

"You want me to go take a nap, don't you?"

"Maybe." She laughed. "I just want to show you."

"I had a five-hour flight that took off at 5.30 AM. A nap won't kill me." A nap sounded very good right now. Especially if it was a nap with Adrian. Mmmh.

"Right, I'll just go upstairs."

"Yeah, okay, I'll go to my room." Adrian looked at me and smiled. "Don't miss me too much." He said, and with that, he left.

What I didn't realize was that I'd be left alone with Christian.

It was then when I realized what a total stranger this guy was to me. All I knew about him was that he had a relationship with the Queen – Lissa, I corrected myself—and that his parents had been Strigoi. However, both subjects weren't exactly small talk triggers.

I cleared my throat and was prepared to make a comment about the weather when he suddenly spoke up.

"She's being humble when she says she's just good at it. She's great. She's been improving a lot lately." When he spoke of her, he did so with a special passion. "I know because I've been her Guinea pig. At first she was kind of weak, the dreams wouldn't hold, they would be blurry, they sometimes ended abruptly. Now she can do it at will, she changes the scenery, her clothes, my clothes." There was an implicit 'she takes them off, too' which I didn't really want to get into.

"Sprit dreams used to freak me out. Now they don't anymore. I guess I just got used to them."

He smirked. "I see you've been used as Guinea pig too."

"No!" I yelped. He frowned. I tried to remain calm. "No, not really. Adrian doesn't need to practice, you know, he's already quite good at it. Not that I have much experience at it, anyway. And he only uses it in emergency cases. Not that there were any emergencies, of course. Just once or twice, if he needs to check on something. You know. Yeah." I said this really fast, without breathing.

Christian stared at me and then started laughing.

"Whoa, whoa, calm down!" He said. "I wasn't implying you were having a torrid dream affair, don't worry."

I blushed. If he only knew.

I quickly changed the subject. "You're a fire user, right?"

"If you're expecting me to yell 'Flame on!' and turn into the Human Torch, I'm afraid you'll be extremely disappointed," he said, while he left his spot against the wall and sat on the couch. "I does come in handy every once in a while, though."

"Like lighting candles?" I inquired, smiling.

"Like killing Strigoi." He answered, smugly.

I scoffed. "As if."

"You don't believe me? Ask Rose, then."

It was then when I realized that I hadn't seen Rose. Where was she? "I would, if I knew where she was. I haven't seen her around."

"She's got her day off. If I could have a guess, I'd say she's spending the day with my own personal guardian, who, incidentally, has the day off too."

That took me aback. "Dimitri's your guardian?"

"Yes. Apparently it's the closest he could get to protecting Lissa without actually being her guardian."

"Don't say that, I'm sure he's more than happy to be assigned to you. And why would it have been an issue if he were Lissa's guardian?"

"Oh, I'm not saying he's not. He just swore loyalty to her, or something of the sort, because she brought him back to the wonderful world of the living." While he spoke, he kept setting his index finger on fire and putting it off. "And it would have been an issue because Rose is Lissa's guardian, which means that if there were some impending danger, he would jump in front of Rose rather than Lissa."

"Oh." I had never known that that was an actual problem. I had never actually thought how difficult guardians' life must be. Always being prepared to give your life for someone else's.

Involuntarily, I yawned.

"I think someone's in need of a power nap too." He said, smirking.

"Actually, yes, I think I do." I said, getting up from the couch. "Thank you for keeping me company."

"Any time."


	2. Old Acquaintances

**Chapter 2**

**Old Acquaintances**

My power nap had been very helpful indeed. I woke up at midnight, meaning it was noon in vampire time. We had been playing cards at around 11 in the morning, which meant it had been in the middle of the night for Christian and Lissa. I should have realized that it wasn't an official meeting.

I got up, got changed and brushed my teeth. No need to cover my golden Lily today. No Mrs. Weathers around to scold me. I was about to go out when I realized I didn't really have a place to go. I had no idea where Adrian's room was, or where any other place was for that matter. I texted him:

"_Sleep well?"_

I got an answer almost immediately.

"_Like a baby. U?"_

"_Great. Where's your room?"_

I was expecting a witty remark and I didn't get surprised when I got one.

"_And why do u want 2 know that?"_

I sighed. God, who was I dating?

"_Just tell me where it is."_

"_Right next to yours, celery stick._

I went out, ready to knock furiously on a door, when I noticed that I did not have only one room next to me, I had, logically, two doors next to my room. I decided for the one in the left. I was planning to be welcomed by an old fat man in his underwear. Luckily, it was just Adrian. And he was not in his underwear, though I don't think I would have minded if he had been.

"Sage. Good to see you. Come on in." He smiled his unnerving smirk as he let me in. I had to remember that I was mad at him.

I sat on the loveseat. How come he got a loveseat and I didn't?

"Why didn't you tell me?" I asked, pulling my best offended face.

He rolled his eyes, like he had been expecting this, and sat on the bed. "Like you would have come if I had told you."

"I… I would have!" I tried to say.

"Sage, you would have said it was irresponsible and reckless."

"Well, I still think that way _now_." I said, looking at him straight to the eye.

"Yeah, but now you're here." He smiled.

"Oh, you're not getting your way with flattery. I'm not backing down in this one." I said, crossing my arms. He got up and sat next to me in the sofa.

His expression was softer now. "Sydney, you really needed to get away from there. I saw you, it's killing you. I know that you love Zoe, and that you're happy she's there, but honestly, she's not good for you. Jill told me how you've been at arm's distance with her, Eddie and Angeline. You needed a break." He took my hand.

I sighed and rested my head on his shoulder. "Not to mention the fact that I never get to see you."

"That too." He said, kissing my forehead. "Want to go get lunch?" I was already cuddling in a very comfortable position.

"Mmm, no, not really." Being around Adrian had this sort of soothing effect on me sometimes. I pulled my head up and kissed him softly on the lips. "I'd rather stay here."

"Is that so?" He said, kissing me back. After that, I knew there was no turning back. He pulled me closer, cupping my face with his hand. I was nearly sitting on top of him, and this reminded me of that day at the college party. I giggled involuntarily, remembering AYE. He broke the kiss to stare at me.

"What?" Our faces were inches apart. I could feel his breath on my nose.

"Nothing." I said. The answer apparently hadn't satisfied him, and he was about to open his mouth to retort when I grabbed him by the neck and kissed him again. He didn't complain. The kiss deepened as pushed me softly, making me lie on the cushions. The space in the sofa was a bit reduced, but this was Adrian Ivashkov; he could make do. His hands snaked tentatively under my shirt. I felt a wave of self-consciousness. He was touching me. My body. The body I did not particularly like. As his mouth left mine and moved towards my neck, I pushed the thought away and concentrated on a task of utter importance: getting rid of his shirt. It wasn't easy, let me tell you. While struggling with the constant need to moan – very inappropriately—I escaped the labyrinth of limbs and managed to find the buttons in his shirt. Have you ever tried unbuttoning the shirt of someone who's lying on top of you? Well, it's not exactly easy. Adrian seemed to notice my inconvenience and smirked. He lifted his head so that he was looking at me.

"Perhaps we should take this somewhere a bit more _comfortable_?" The bed was practiacally staring at us, yelling at us to go and make it useful. I noticed Adrian was waiting for my answer, which was no more than a struggled 'Sure' which came out of my mouth at the same time someone knocked on the door.

Adrian collapsed on top of me. "Are you fucking_ kidding_ me?" He said, his forehead resting on my shoulder. He got his head up once more. "WHO IS IT?" He screamed.

"ROSE." A voice screamed back. I tensed. I scrambled away, pushing Adrian off the loveseat. I must have looked deranged. "_Hey!"_ he whispered as he got to his feet. I sat, as presentably as I could possibly manage, on the sofa, after having smoothened the cushions, so that it didn't look like a hand-to-hand battle had taken place there. Adrian took a deep breath and opened the door.

"Hi!" Rose said, as she came in and hugged Adrian. I felt a pang of jealousy. _Stop worrying_, I told myself, _he's not interested anymore_. How could I ignore it, though? How could I act as if I was oblivious of the fact that he had kissed her the same way he kissed me, that he had told her he loved her, that they had –most probably—had sex in a room not so different from this one?

Rose seemed to have discovered me by then. "Sydney? What are you doing here?" she said, before rushing to hug me too.

"I, uh… had some things to discuss with Adrian." I said. "Like why he lured me into a trap, for example."

Rose smiled and sat on the bed. "Well, I doubt it's a trap if he's doing it to help you."

I scoffed. "I don't need help. I'm not stressed. The job is _no big deal_. It's not like I have to personally protect Jill; that's Eddie's and Neil job. I just sit around and pretend to be a High School student. There's nothing difficult in _that_." Actually, when I put it like that, it did sound like an easy job. Of course, I left out the part where I was a magic user and had been chased by a demented witch hoping to suck the life out of me.

"Are you kidding me? You got attacked by crazy Vampire Hunters and had to face Strigoi on your own. I would hardly describe that as easy." I had omitted those too.

"Oh, come on, Sage. I missed a week of college to come here, at least let's make something out of it." Adrian flashed a grin at me.

My mouth dropped. I had completely forgotten about college.

"Adrian!" I jumped off my spot on the sofa and glared at him. "You can't miss a whole week of college! They're going to kick you out of the program!" I wanted to strangle him. He didn't seem to care. I sighed.

"Relax, Sage. I told my teacher I had my Uncle Reggie's funeral in Philadelphia and that I wouldn't be back until next week. She gave me a speech on the fragility of life –Reggie was killed in a car accident—and told me that if I needed extra time to mourn, that I shouldn't even check with her. She also said that painting him could help me get rid of the pain. Therefore," he stopped and started looking for something in his luggage. He took out what could only be a sketchbook and started flicking through the pages until he found what he was looking for: a sketch of an ugly man of undecipherable age. "Aunt Reggie"

I laughed. Rose was kind of petrified.

"Wow." She said. She looked at Adrian and then back at the drawing. "That's… really… wow. Can I see the rest?"

Adrian shrugged. "Sure." And he gave it to her.

Rose took the sketchbook and started going through it. Sometimes I forgot that not everyone knew about Adrian's art. Rose's reaction shouldn't have been surprising. Nobody really expected anything from Adrian, he was just _Adrian_. I felt proud that he was actually doing something about that talent he had; knowing that I was somewhat responsible for that made me feel… important. I liked to know things about him that no one else did, I liked to treat him like nobody else treated him. I liked being special. I felt incredibly selfish, but I couldn't help it. I suddenly felt the need to kick Rose out of the room.

"I didn't know you were so good." She was still awestruck.

"And those are only sketches." I said. I probably sounded like a boastful mother. "You should see his paintings. They are breath taking."

That seemed to stir something in Adrian's mind because he started rummaging through his luggage again. "Want to see real art?" he said, while he continued to search. He took out something that I didn't get to see. "Here's real art." He handed that something to Rose. It was a shirt.

I stifled a laugh. Rose took it.

"Oh?" she said. She looked at it, confused. "What the hell is this?"

Adrian got behind her. "Well, that's a pirate skeleton." He said, pointing. "That's his faithful companion, his skeleton parrot. He's also a ninja. Not the parrot, the pirate. Oh, and don't worry, he's not committing suicide, that's just a tie."

Rose burst out laughing. "Aye, captain!"

Adrian pulled a serious face. "Don't make Aye jokes. Us Yams don't like being associated to pirates. That's just a mere coincidence."

Rose raised an eyebrow. "Us _yams_? What do vegetables have to do with anything?"

I felt a need to scream 'YAMS ARE TUBERS!'

"Alpha Yam Ergo. That's my fraternity."

"A _fraternity_?" she looked at me.

"He's kidding." Didn't anyone notice that neither Yam nor Ergo were Greek letters? "I doubt that any fraternity would have taken him."

Adrian turned to look at me. "I'm hurt, Sage."

"Oh come on, you wouldn't have been able to go through all those rituals. "

"Yes, I would have."

"Come on. What if you had had to take care of a chicken for a whole week?"

"What, like that guy on the Social Network? Well, for starters, I wouldn't have fed it _chicken_. I'm smarter than that."

"You think so? I'd like to see you try to come up with the algorithms for facebook."

"Smartness is more than intelligence."

"Smartness is not a word."

"Yes it is. Autocorrect lets me write it on my iPhone." He wrote and showed me.

"Oh. Ok." I guess I couldn't fight that. I frowned. "When did you have to write _smartness_ on a text message?"

"That's a secret I'll never tell."

"Gossip Girl? Seriously?"

"I'm amazed that you know that."

"I don't live in a bubble, you know."

"You did live in Russia, though."

Rose cleared her throat. "I should get going. Lissa's probably going to need me now."

I had completely forgotten she was here.

"Oh, yes, sure, of course." I stopped. "Didn't you have your day off today?"

She smiled. "That was yesterday, Sydney." Oh, right, vampire days.

"I guess I'll see you around." She said, while opening the door. "Bye, guys."

We both said goodbye and she closed the door behind her.

"So, where were we?"

**A/N: I'm sorry this took so long! (or did it take long? I don't know when it comes to fanfiction.) Thank you for all the lovely reviews! You're fantastic.**

**I promise more Christian/Sydney friendship on the next chapter, and I hope that it will be longer :) **

**Clara**


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